Body Impolitic

Blogging about a wide range of body image and photography topics, and more.

Older Horizons in Pornography

Laurie and Debbie say:

According to the New York Times, at least a segment of the porn industry is showing real women. In an article on older women in pornography, journalist Sharon Waxman says: “She looks like what she is, an attractive 50-year-old, with eyelids and cheeks that have succumbed to gravity and concentric circles of rippled skin on her belly from childbirth, three decades ago, and from dropping 38 pounds this year.” That sentence could apply perfectly to models in Women En Large.

The porn star in question is De’Bella, or Debbie, and here’s what she looks like:

The whole article is interesting and surprising: director Urbano Martin says, “The market for beautiful, airbrushed young women is oversaturated. This is more normal people, more meat on the bone, like what you have at home.”

Of course, many factors apply here: the professionalization and routinization of high-end pornography; the explosion of home-grown pornography; and the availability of virtually every niche desire on the Internet, among other factors.

Nonetheless, we see something very encouraging in this shift. In one important sense, older women are “real women.” The sagging caused by gravity and the scars and weight shifts caused by life start early. By our mid-thirties, even the most conventionally beautiful women rarely still look like teen idols. Until now, the only push has been to keep those looks at whatever cost. Get plastic surgery, use Botox, choose your clothing with care, and never ever let him see you nude in good light. That push is all still there, and it’s not going anywhere any time soon.

At the same time, if young men are learning to eroticize aging, one thing that means is that they’ll be able to like how their contemporaries (wives, girlfriends, sisters) look as they age. And since (for better or for worse) what men like to see influences how many women feel about themselves, this can only be a good thing.